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Bruce Tuchman will be leaving AMC Networks this April, following MIPTV.

“Having been with the company since 2011, Bruce Tuchman, president of AMC Global and Sundance Channel Global, will be leaving AMC Networks this April,” the company said in a statement, confirming his departure.

“He has been instrumental in developing Sundance Channel into a global brand and successfully transitioning the MGM Channel into AMC Global, positioning the business for future growth. We wish him well in his new endeavors.”

As president of AMC Global and Sundance Channel Global, Tuchman has been leading the strategic distribution, programming, business development and marketing of the AMC and Sundance Channel brands internationally. Tuchman also manages Kinowelt TV, one of German-speaking Europe’s leading film networks and a company that AMC Networks acquired in 2014 under his leadership. Under Tuchman, AMC also acquired all assets of Chellomedia from Liberty Global.

Prior to joining AMC Networks, Tuchman worked as president of MGM Worldwide Networks and as general manager of Nickelodeon Global Network Ventures and SVP, Nickelodeon New Media Ventures, as well as at MTV Networks.

TalkTalk has suffered subscriber losses in the months after last October’s cyber attack. The company says the attack impacted to the tune of £15 million with exceptional costs of between £40 and £45 million.

Subscriber numbers declined by 101,000, while RGUs fell back by 70,000, which the company says is as the result of the shutdown of its online sales channels in the wake of the attack.

CEO Dido Harding said January had seen a positive growth in RGUs once more. “It is encouraging to see the business returning to normal after a challenging quarter that was dominated by the cyber attack. Our customers have responded well, with almost half a million customers choosing to take up our unconditional offer of a free upgrade. Both churn and new connections recovered during December and January and independent external research has revealed that customers believe that we acted in their best interest.”

No new TV numbers were released with analyst Paolo Pescatore of CCS Insight expressing disappointment: “Traditionally it is a k€y quarter for all providers as underlined by BT and Sky’s results. It would seem that their success has had a huge impact on TalkTalk subscriber losses.”

Previously TalkTalk has reported over a million TV subs with higher YouView numbers than fellow partner BT.

Russia ended 2015 with 2015 with 5.52 million IPTV subscribers, a 20.2% increase on the total a year earlier.

At the same time, according to figures produced by TMT Consulting and quoted by ComNews, the total number of pay-TV subscribers in the country increased by 3.7% to 39.4 million, compared to an 8.6% rise in 2014.

IPTV was the fastest growing pay-TV segment in 2014, while last year, in absolute terms, the increase in the IPTV subscriber base matched that in the satellite TV one.

In Moscow, IPTV accounted for 48% of new pay-TV connections in 2015 thanks largely to the new MGTS GPON fibre-optic network.

Rostelecom accounted for the majority of IPTV connections in Russia as a whole, gaining 0.6 million to reach 3.3 million at the end of last year.

Although cable remains the most popular way to receive pay-TV services in Russia, accounting for 46% of connections and followed by satellite (40%) and IPTV (14%), it is starting to IPTV, losing 1.5% of its subscriber base in 2015.

The Russian broadcaster CTC Media has received the final tranche of the purchase price of its sale of 75% of the company to UTV Management.

The amount – $42.5 million – is $7.5 million less than $50 million initially envisaged, dependent on the performance of the business in the second half of the year and agreed indemnity obligations.

The sale closed on December 23, with CTC Media then receiving $150.5 million in cash. According to the company, the total amount paid in the sale now amounts to $193.1 million.

Commenting on the development, Werner Klatten, chairman of the special committee of the board of CTC Media, said: “The management team achieved solid operating results in the second half of 2015 in a challenging and deteriorating market environment in Russia. Against this macroeconomic backdrop, this performance helped to limit the reduction in the purchase price. We look forward to completing the proposed merger transaction to return value to stockholders as soon as possible.”

CTC Media’s shareholders have approved a proposed merger transaction in which a wholly owned subsidiary of the company would merge with and into the company, with the company surviving. However, this requires a licence from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department and has not yet been received.

It can hardly come as a surprise, but both Samsung and LG are now set to phase out 3D.

Samsung Electronics is not going to install 3D function into new products, and LG Electronics is going to reduce the number of 3D TVs in half, reports Korean ET News.

“Although 40% of all TVs last year had 3D functions, only 20% of TVs this year will have 3D functionality,” said a representative for LG Electronics. “Because there are still consumers who enjoy 3D movies and others, we are going to apply 3D function mainly on premium products.”

The source attributes Samsung’s decision to drop 3D altogether by the lack of new orders for its shutter glass 3D glasses. “Even though we had been supplying 3D glasses until last year, there is no any request for new supply this year.” said a representative for Samsung Electronics’ partner. “It is seen that Samsung Electronics is not going to apply 3D technology into its new TVs.”

These moves come hardly as a surprise, as watching 3D television involved too many hurdles, the main one being the fact that people have to wear special glasses to enjoy the 3D pictures – and there still is a lack of standardisation for those glasses.

“3D TV was a fail due to content, prices and technology,” concluded a recent report from market research company IHS, “The fact that people have to wear glasses to watch 3D TVs did not work too well for consumers.”

Talks between Canal+ and BeIN sports over an exclusive distribution deal have entered a new phase.

Sources familiar with the situation have told Le Monde that they do not involve a takeover of the pay sports channel. Instead anyone wishing to subscribe to the BeIN channels would have to do so through one of the Canal+ or Canalsat bouquets.

More evidence that a deal is close to fruition comes from sports newspaper L’Equipe, which says the competition authority is about to launch a market test.

Any investigation is likely to receive an unfavourable response from cable operator Numericable, which doesn’t currently hold an agreement with Canal.

Vivendi CEO Vincent Bolloré’s original strategy was to attempt to buy the loss-making Qatari-owned sports channels as part of a plan to bolster Canal’s falling local subscriber base.

This now appears to have softened, but the role of Altice/Numericable will mean Bollore will not have the market to himself.

Hispasat says its now one of the most profitable satellite operators on the market after 2015 revenues reached €219.6 million.

The Spanish satellite operator said its entrance into Morocco had also generated additional revenues.

EBITDA grew to €178.9 million, representing a 10.6% increase year over year.

“The strategy developed by the company in 2015 has yielded positive results and allowed it to grow,” said Hispasat president Elena Pisonero. “In this business year we have worked intensely and put our efforts towards the entry into new markets, such as Morocco. We have gained new orbital positions, formed alliances with other operators and renewed and expanded contracts with major clients, particularly in Latin America, in countries such as Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Colombia.”

Revenue from space capacity grew to €216.4 million. The company also benefitted from a favourable exchange rate.

The Ukrainian regulator has told programme providers to refrain from relaying the Russian-language channel Ukraine 24.

In a statement, it says that despite its name the channel is not licensed in Ukraine and does not meet the requirements of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Its logo can mislead both viewers and providers that it is a national Ukrainian channel.

The regulator also points to legislation enacted in the country in May 2015 prohibiting the broadcasting of Russian adverts on Russian channels distributed in Ukraine.

The legislation also led to the creation by the regulator of a list of foreign channels allowed to be retransmitted in Ukraine.

As previously reported in Broadband TV News, 15 Russian channels were removed from that list last week.

Viacom’s revitalisation of the Paramount brand is continuing with the launch of the first Paramount Channel in Asia.

There are already Paramount Channels in Spain, France, Russia, Romania, Hungary and Latin America. Italy will debut later this month.

The high-definition 24-hour movie channel is set to launch in Thailand on CTH’s satellite and over-the-top streaming service in May, giving it linear OTT and linear TV Everywhere streaming rights in Thailand. The agreement also includes a new licensing deal for MTV Thailand to be officially moved to CTH, which was effective from 15 January 2016.

“The introduction of Paramount Channel in Asia is a k€y, strategic step in deepening our presence both in Thailand and in Asia, while expanding our portfolio of adult-targeted brands. We’re thrilled CTH has come on board for this highly anticipated launch in Asia and look forward to seeing Paramount Channel expand further in the coming months,” said Mark Whitehead, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for VIMN Asia.

Paramount Channel will feature a mix of blockbusters, movie hits, cult favorites and some of the most award-winning films in the history of cinema from PARAMOUNT Pictures’ monumental film library.

German subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Watchever has created a section for arthouse movies.

The Arthaus Classics channel launched at the occasion of the 66th Berlinale contains masterpieces of film history from directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta.

The productions turned their main characters into icons and won several awards, for example films like Deutschland im Herbst, Homo Faber, Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu.

The new channel is operated in collaboration with film distributor Studiocanal which, like Watchever, is a subsidiary of French media company Vivendi.